Fighting Terrorism
Over the last few years responding to incidents from the source of terrorism has started to feature heavily in the scope of work Enterprise Risk Managers entertain each day.
Until quite recently ERM practitioners have struggled to develop effective controls for battling Activism, Social Disorder, Terrorism and Cyber Risk. This is partly because data around these types of incidents is loaded with paucity but also robust mainstream risk management practices for responding to these risk sources are still in their infancy. Perpetrators are ahead of the curve much of the time, they have the upper hand while authorities too often dumb down detailed intel they disclose. All of this makes for a complex domain to manage.
National Consortium for the Study of Responses to Terrorism | LINK
Nonetheless, the effects of terrorism threaten to impact the operations of companies across the planet and executive managers are starting to expect some kind of progressive response from the risk management department.
One source of sound information I have found to be relatively useful is the National Consortium For the Study of Terrorism [LINK]. The site has a library of various practice papers for risk managers, a statistical search system and other presentations which are quite straightforward to read but also informative.
Please don't misunderstand me, I am not saying there aren't plenty of news sites and run of the mill alarmist publications across the internet on this fascinating yet highly debated topic. The perspectives on terrorism blog [LINK] lists 200+ commonly visited places, some of these sites carry a message the government wants you to hear while other domains provide little or no rational insight beyond the mundane. Much of what I read from the social media end of the game aims to either insight or appease the masses and this end of the information spectrum doesn't really translate into useful information or guidance for risk managers.
For those operational risk managers being dragged into the risk domain of counter terrorism, I wish you luck and I leave you with the US department of state terrorism publication list [LINK] but do take a look at the National Consortium For the Study of Terrorism for a refreshingly pragmatic approach to Counter Terrorism.
